Infection by the retrovirus known as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) continues to be a serious human health problem. Methods for treating HIV infections include administering agents which inhibit the activity of viral enzymes which are essential to the life cycle of the virus.
The genomes of retroviruses encode a protease that is responsible for the proteolytic processing of one or more polyprotein precursors such as the pol and gag gene products. Retroviral proteases most commonly process the gag precursor into core proteins, and also process the pol precursor into reverse transcriptase and retroviral protease.
The field of viral chemotherapeutics has developed in response to the need for agents effective against retroviruses, in particular HIV. Theoretically, there are many ways in which an agent can exhibit anti-retroviral activity. The HIV genome encodes several viral-specific enzymes, such as reverse transcriptase (RT), integrase, and protease (PR); viral-specific regulatory proteins, such as tat, rev, nef, and vif; and, numerous viral-specific structural proteins, and numerous viral-specific structural proteins, such as capsid, nucleocapsid, matrix, and envelope proteins. Many of these proteins are essential for viral replication. Accordingly, viral replication theoretically could be inhibited through inhibition of any one or all of the proteins involved in viral replication. In practice, however, only inhibitors of RT and PR are currently available for antiviral therapy.
Nucleoside analogues (NRTIs), such as 3′-azido-2′,3′-dideoxythymidine (AZT), 2′,3′-dideoxycytidine (ddC), and 2′,3′-dideoxyinosine (ddI) are known to inhibit HIV RT. There also exist non-nucleoside inhibitors (NNRTIs) specific for HIV-1 RT, such as Nevirapine, and Efavirenz.
Retroviral PR inhibitors (PIs) have also been identified as a class of anti-retroviral agents. The retroviral PR processes polyprotein precursors into viral structural proteins and replicative enzymes. This processing is essential for the assembly and maturation of fully infectious virions. Accordingly, the design of PIs that selectively inhibit PR has been an important therapeutic goal in the treatment of HIV infections and AIDS. Strategies used in the design of HIV PIs include substrate-based, peptidomimetic, transition state-based, and structure-based drug design (Wlodawer & Erickson, Ann. Rev. Biochem., 62, 543-585 (1992)).
Numerous classes of potent peptidic inhibitors of PR have been designed using the natural cleavage site of the precursor polyproteins as a starting point. These inhibitors typically are peptide substrate analogs in which the scissile P1-P1′ amide bond has been replaced by a non-hydrolyzable isostere with tetrahedral geometry (Moore et al., Perspect. Drug Dis. Design, 1, 85 (1993); Tomasselli et al., Int. J. Chem. Biotechnology, 6 (1991); Huff, J. Med. Chem., 34, 2305 (1991); Norbeck et al., Ann. Reports Med. Chem., 26, 141 (1991); Meek, J. Enzyme Inhibition, 6, 65 (1992)).
The design of HIV-1 PIs based on the transition-state mimetic concept has led to the generation of a variety of peptide derivatives highly active against viral replication in vitro (Erickson et al., Science; 249, 527-533 (1990); Kramer et al., Science, 231, 1580-1584 (1986); McQuade et al., Science, 247, 454-456 (1990); Meek et al., Nature (London), 343, 90-92 (1990); Roberts et al., Science, 248, 358-361 (1990)). These active agents contain a non-hydrolyzable, dipeptide isostere such as hydroxyethylene (McQuade et al., supra; Meek et al., Nature (London), 343, 90-92 (1990); Vacca et al., J. Med. Chem., 34, 1225-1228 (1991)) or hydroxyethylamine (Rich et al., J. Med. Chem., 33, 1285-1288 (1990); Roberts et al., Science, 248, 358-361 (1990)) as an active moiety which mimics the putative transition state of the aspartic protease-catalyzed reaction.
Two-fold (C2) symmetric inhibitors of HIV protease represent another class of potent HIV PIs which were created by Erickson et al. on the basis of the three-dimensional symmetry of the enzyme active site (Erickson et al., supra).
Typically, the usefulness of currently available HIV PIs in the treatment of AIDS has been limited by relatively short plasma half-life, poor oral bioavailability, and the technical difficulty of scale-up synthesis (Meek et al. (1992), supra). Although these inhibitors are effective in preventing the retroviral PR from functioning, the inhibitors suffer from some distinct disadvantages. Generally, peptidomimetics make poor drugs due to their potential adverse pharmacological properties, i.e., poor oral absorption, poor stability, and rapid metabolism (Plattner et al., Drug Discovery Technologies, Clark et al., eds., Ellish Horwood, Chichester, England (1990)). Furthermore, since the active site of the PR is hindered, i.e., has reduced accessibility as compared to the remainder of the PR, the ability of the inhibitors to access and bind in the active site of the PR is impaired. Those inhibitors that do bind are generally poorly water-soluble, causing distinct problems for formulation and drug delivery.
Some drugs and, in particular, some HIV protease inhibitors are metabolized by cytochrome P450 monooxygenase, leading to unfavorable pharmacokinetics and the need for more frequent and higher doses than are most desirable. Therefore, administration of such drugs with an agent that inhibits metabolism by cytochrome P450 monooxygenase can improve the pharmacokinetics (i.e., increase half-life, increase the time to peak plasma concentration, increase blood levels) of the drug.
However, present methods of inhibiting cytochrome P450 enzymes are not wholly satisfactory because of toxicity issues, high cost, and other such factors. It is apparent, therefore, that new and improved agents and methods of inhibiting cytochrome P450 enzymes are greatly to be desired. In particular, compositions and methods where the cytochrome p450 enzyme inhibitor can be co-administered with another biologically active compound that is metabolized by cytochrome P450 enzymes are highly desirable.